Ragsf15e

I have a reasonable relationship with my normal mechanic and trust his engine related judgment. He’s no Mooney expert though (Cirrus). He is responsive and does my annuals. However, last annual he pointed out some work he didn’t really want to do, but thought it needed done (scraping some peeling paint, cleaning surface corrosion, painting). So in January, I scheduled an appointment with a well known, fairly well regarded shop that said they could do it. I called twice between January and now to discuss expectations. I was initially told about 1 week, maybe slightly longer. I dropped off the airplane at 9:00am on the promised Monday. By Thursday I got a call that the airplane wasn’t even in the hangar yet and they wouldn’t start until Thursday afternoon at the earliest. I told them not to touch it. I’ll come pick it up as is. 5 hours each way in a rental car while it sat outside in the rain instead of in my hangar. Do I expect too much to get started within a day of promised?

are you gonna try contacting Garmin or maybe through Trek on BT?

I don’t doubt that this is part of the issue, but they shouldn’t fail on loss of airspeed. They also have groundspeed input. Since the old aspens which did fail on loss of airspeed, designers have avoided that due to the possibility of pito tube ice.

Maybe, but I suspect it’s some kind of software issue. Be nice to hear from Garmin on this.

That was the case with old Aspen models. Not the case with newer ones or the garmins. The G5s use gps for Ahrs correction but continue in a “degraded” mode if it’s lost. I have turned off my gps in flight and flew around with no noticeable degradation.

Instead of GEG, use SFF in Spokane. It’s cheaper, closer to town and historic. It has a restaurant and GA services. I’m based there. GEG is just airliners and an expensive Signature. If you want to do approaches there it’s fine but I wouldn’t stop at signature. From SFF, ground can give you a squawk code and freq for flight following with Spokane approach (SFF is under the GEG/Fairchild AFB class C). I usually go ~SFF-EAT-BFI if I’m vfr. Easily done at 11,500’ in my F. Fully loaded isn’t a problem. Spectacular views of Mt Rainer. If you want to go with lower rocks, follow V2 from ELN. If you’re landing at BFI, it’s spitting distance to KRNT and KSEA. It’s real busy. Vfr is a bit confusing into BFI but can be done. I highly recommend asking to enter the class B instead of going below which is where they will try to push you. IFR into BFI is much easier. AWO is a nice GA field to the north with a restaurant.

I agree, however, do you think pulling the breaker would cut their communication? They both have battery backup.

They’ve got gps trk on the heading at the bottom. They seem to be tied into gps. Actually, that’s probably an installation requirement like it is for the G5s, although they continue to work without it.

Probably not much help since I’ve got a 68 F, but yeah, mine does exactly what you described. I even had the cowl flaps tightened up with new hardware because I thought they might be part of it. No change. I thought about the prop balance too but had the same questions as you.

Ha! That’s awesome. It is nice to have a backup. My stec 30 and my GTX345 ahrs are mine... the stec 30 is a reasonable backup since it’s rate based. At least it’ll keep the wings level until you can find vmc.

You sure your -345 has the internal gps? Mine doesn’t. The model with gps costs more, so did you really opt for that if you already had a waas gps? It will still output your transponder code which could be used by flightaware for position.

Or loose plug wires. Check all the plugs. Id listen to it on a mag check to see if it changes, that should narrow it down if it’s mags or plugs.

I have an F and I’d keep the Ram air. 6 years with no expense yet which means next month I’m probably SOL.

Curious, and just for future reference in this thread, which special tools are needed to pull the old ones and insert new?

Try turning off the gps sometime and fly around for a little while. Probably worth knowing if it’s substantially degraded (which I doubt since they had to try that in certification). I did that with my G5s and didn’t notice any issues.

Mcfarlane can build them as described above. Or, buy them by part number through an MSC (like Lasar). Either way, mcfarlane will be the manufacturer.

Well sheesh, what about when we’re all in a car together? Or maybe we can fly ourselves but send the misses and the kids on the train? I don’t mean to be flippant, but once we’ve decided flying is safe enough for us to travel and (possibly) convinced our wives as well, leaving the kids at home because it’s not wise to have us all together seems like we were wrong in the first place?

Definitely more resources and support than our beloved model... how goes the G1000 waas upgrade? I saw a cirrus factory test pilot come out and fly an airplane to certify the repair after it was damaged and had to have a significant wing repair done. I love Mooney, but don’t ask for too much support at the moment.

Not sure about your cowl flaps changing the reading, but your ground and cruise readings are the same as mine. Less than 20 on the ground, 0 in cruise. Last week I saw 60 during runup but I had a quartering tailwind and elected to takeoff. As soon as I turned to point down the runway it started decreasing. The airplanes are sort of leaky. No way to fix that perfectly. However, I have also found a significant exhaust issue based on high readings on the ground, so the sensorcon has paid for itself.

That’s how mine was connected as well. Time to use a digital volt meter on the VR and field wiring.

I’d still call jpi. They aren’t super helpful but they do answer the phone/email.

@kortopates nailed it, but let me try to give you a clear test... use direct to in gps mode to something say 20nm away. CDI WILL CENTER. Now press OBS button on the bottom of the 430. Turn OBS knob on hsi and you should see the CDI deflected left or right as you change the desired OBS course. If you fail to push the OBS button on the unit, you can turn the obs knob all you want and the needle will stay centered.

Standard temp at 6500’ is 35 degrees f. I suspect where you were was warmer. Density altitude was likely much higher. I have an NA airplane so I generally don’t takeoff after 9am from high airports in the summer. Flying out west it’s easier to remember this, but you learned a good lesson you likely won’t forget. Just know the temp as well because even a measly 3000’ altitude airport at 95 degrees will get your attention.

I’m not sure about bending it back, but you might want to look carefully for cracking in the aft spar where the flap torque tubes connect. Obviously there’s an SB and stiffener that can go there, but stepping on the flaps has to put a lot of stress there.

If you’re keeping a 2005ish Ovation (or 182 or SR20) outside in the northeast, and renting it to 4 or 5 people, you may not even find insurance that will accept you. Even in a hangar by yourself, you might have trouble getting insurance in the Ovation or it might just be outrageous. That decision is purely $$ though. Definitely check into the insurance aspect of this to fine tune your plan.